Grace Hightower

“I did everything. I worked at S.S. Kresge, the five-and-dime. I worked in a mailroom. I worked processing insurance claims.”

“I grew up in Kilmichael, Mississippi. It's a dot on the map 100 miles north of Jackson.”

“I'm not the type of person that could take someone else's funds and take a chance with them.”

“I'll give you my routine, my morning ritual: I get up, I do a bit of stretching, and then after showering and everything, I have a half cup of warm lemon water. I've been doing that forever. I love it. It just brightens everything for me.”

“Before I started Coffee of Grace, I assumed all coffee came from Latin America or Indonesia. I wasn't familiar with African coffee.”

“Everyone has something to contribute to this world. It's just a matter of being given that opportunity to do so.”

“My vision is to hire qualified employees that may have not yet had the opportunity to create a better life for themselves, or did have one but might have came down on hard times and need a hand.”

“If I go anywhere, and I don't have my coffee, I don't drink coffee. When I travel, I carry it with me - and I ask hotels to grind it and brew it for me if I can't have it in my room myself. I'm dedicated that way.”

“I don't encourage kids to eat sugar, but I do it.”